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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25309291">all I do is dream of summer rain</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/knightcaptain/pseuds/knightcaptain'>knightcaptain</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Azula is... Wired, Dragons, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Family Drama, Freeform, Mythology - Freeform, Not Canon Compliant, Parent-Child Relationship, Pre-Canon, Psychological Trauma, Slash, Teenage Rebellion, Toph is... Tired, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Well well well... if it isn't the consequences of my actions</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 01:58:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>12,077</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25309291</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/knightcaptain/pseuds/knightcaptain</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Fifteen-year-old Suyin Beifong runs away from her mother, but soon learns she wasn’t the first daughter in the world to try <i>that</i> power move.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aang/Katara (Avatar), Azula &amp; Suyin Beifong, Azula/Toph Beifong, Lin Beifong &amp; Suyin Beifong, Lin Beifong &amp; Suyin Beifong &amp; Toph Beifong, Lin Beifong/Tenzin, Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Minor or Background Relationship(s), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Suyin Beifong &amp; Toph Beifong</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>132</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The Emancipation of One Suyin Beifong</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Mom, Su’s—”</p><p>“I know.”</p><p>“Shouldn’t we—?”</p><p>“Let her. She always comes back.” Toph’s unseeing gaze was fixed on the door through which her younger daughter had just silently seethed into the night. Lin’s breaths came slower, more deliberate now. She was worrying. Toph turned her head by a fraction. “Trust me. She’ll be back before dinner tomorrow.”</p><p>“…If you say so.” Already, Lin was moving away, feet padding quickly up the stairs. Her voice grew smaller, as did Toph’s world. “I’m… I’m going to try and find her in the usual places tomorrow morning. It’s on my patrol route anyway.”</p><p>Left alone at last, Republic City’s first ever police chief leaned back against the chair. Toph tutted quietly to herself in the empty living room. Lin, doing well in the police academy, had inherited her father’s stoicism, certainly, even though Toph knew better what was running beneath the surface.</p><p>But Suyin?</p><p>Suyin Beifong had gotten <em>everything</em> from her mother. Poor luck, Toph thought absently. Poor fuckin’ kid.</p><p>She sat right where she was until it was far too late. Her spirit began to flag with exhaustion that weighed like cruel steel.</p><p>Yet she didn’t move. No, Toph was waiting for something to come back to her as she enjoyed the cool draft coming in through an open window to her right. She just wasn’t quite sure if it was her daughter she was waiting for.</p><p>There was just this strange anticipation that came in with the wind, tickling the earthbender like it knew something. But Toph had neither the foresight nor the energy to figure it out. She just sat in perfect silence, face betraying nothing of her thoughts.</p><p>*</p><p>This time, she was going to make it.</p><p>Suyin huffed every four or five steps, blazing a smoking trail through the city center. In the outer ring of Republic City, she would be able to rent a bike with the money she’d swiped from home before making her exit. Her <em>last </em>exit, in case anyone was having doubts.</p><p>And if anyone <em>was </em>having doubts, it certainly wasn’t Suyin Beifong, daughter of the highly esteemed police chief of Republic City. No sir, she was going to get the hell out of dodge in the wee hours of the dawn and never look back.</p><p>The memory of her last scuffle with her mother still stung fresh and sharp. She tightened her grip on the knapsack over her shoulder. No looking back, she told herself.</p><p>Already, the early risers in the streets were giving her odd looks. Some recognised her. Others recognised the bigger picture: Toph Beifong’s had another falling out with her kid. Again. What a waste of good legacy, of prime roots in earthbending mastery, of a rich history steeped in heroic adventures with the Avatar who saved the world.</p><p>Suyin scowled into their disappointed faces as she passed them by. Strangers, every last one of them, and they had the audacity to judge her?</p><p>Imagined or not, this was why she’d had enough of Republic City. Enough of being paraded around like she was meant for something great, when really “great” just meant fitting into Mother’s boots whether she wanted it or not.</p><p>She caught the first bus out to the outer ring and hopped on, grateful to escape the chill for just a couple of minutes.</p><p>The heater hummed low and comforting as she settled into the back of the bus, knapsack draped across her lap. It was heavy; she’d taken enough food and water to last her about two weeks.</p><p>It was more than she needed—it took only a week to get to the next settlement without getting on an airship—because Suyin was still very much fifteen, very much prone to eating her feelings.</p><p>She sank into the warmth of her seat, watching the city wake up outside the window. The skies were opening up for the sun to rise. Soon, Republic City was bathing in a river of light.</p><p>Suyin’s eyes drooped heavy as she leaned her head against the glass, bored. It really was nothing special. She fell asleep clutching the knapsack close to her chest, lulled by the gentle quiver of the moving bus into idle dreams of wide rolling plains and a limitless sky.</p><p>*</p><p>“Hey. Wake up.”</p><p>“Five more minutes.”</p><p>“Yeah, not gonna happen. We’re at the end of the line, kiddo.” Someone prodded roughly into her arm. “I ain’t drivin’ you back, either.”</p><p>“End of the…?” Suyin yawned into a languid stretch before she realised exactly where she was. She peered up at the bus driver, who only appeared as a shadow as he stood with his back to the lights in the bus, and then looked out the window. The bus depot?!</p><p>She quickly scrambled to her feet, swinging her knapsack over her shoulder. “Damn it,” she said, pushing past the driver. “Why didn’t you wake me up? Where are we now?”</p><p>“Wha—wake you?! First off, I drive buses, not wake up runaways when all they wanna do is hang out at the arcade! And <em>secondly</em>,” he followed her until she was off the bus, huffing angrily, “we’re at the western depot. You’re <em>welcome</em>!”</p><p>Suyin hissed at him until he went away, back into the safety of his bus. She weaved through the sea of commuters, following the direction of its current until she was out in the streets again and glaring up at the sun.</p><p>She checked her watch. It was just a little before noon. Fine, she thought. I’ll just walk the rest of the way.</p><p>The western part of Republic City was still pretty much in the works. She’d heard something about the council agreeing to build a museum or monument here, commemorating the union of the four nations.</p><p>She eyed the construction that was underway with contempt. Already she could see the Avatar, Firelord, Katara, and her <em>mother </em>being there to officiate another opening ceremony. So much pomp and fanfare, Suyin thought, when nothing was really happening.</p><p>She kicked at loose rocks along the path, feeling herself getting riled up again at the mere thought of Toph.</p><p>Their last conversation hadn’t been pleasant. Toph had once again missed another performance she’d worked all month at school. Lin had said nothing about that; Toph had missed her graduation ceremony a week earlier. Suyin hated them both for that, for being physically present but never quite around when she needed them most.</p><p>
  <em>“You know what, maybe I should just sign all my own forms from now on and save you the trouble. I know you’re thinkin’ it—”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Better watch that tone, Bug. You’re talking to your mother.”</em>
</p><p><em>“My </em>mother<em>,” Suyin parroted her mother with an edge of cruelty in her tone, “who’s no better than a ghost at this point.” She rounded on her mother like an awful shadow, already the same height as Toph at fifteen. “Why do I even try?”</em></p><p>
  <em>“You try plenty enough for me. It was just—an oversight, Bug,” Toph had muttered, standing her ground the way only an earthbender could. Suyin mirrored her, scowling. “It’s not gonna happen again.”</em>
</p><p><em>“Yeah, it’s not. Because you’re never coming to any of my performances, </em>ever<em>. Consider yourself permanently uninvited.”</em></p><p>
  <em>“Okay, okay, I know this act. I've done it with my own parents, all right? So quit actin’ like the whole world owes you big time.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Oh, no.” Suyin laughed without mirth. “Not the world. Just you, mom. But you don’t care. Look at what Lin did for you—joined the police force, just so you’d pay her whatever scraps of leftover attention you’ve got—”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“All right.” Toph grimaced. “That’s enough. Get up to your room.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Yeah, I knew that was comin’,” Suyin said, sardonic. “I’ll get outta your hair, don’t you worry.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Toph turned as Suyin pushed past her and, even though she was blind, stared directly into her daughter’s retreating back.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”<br/></em>
</p><p>She passed by an open plaza and miserably watched kids riding the mighty shoulders of their parents. For a brief moment Suyin felt an undeniable pang in her chest; visions of breakfast in the mornings with her taking the lead in the kitchen since Toph and Lin both couldn't cook for shit, and the sound of the three Beifong women laughing it up in that tiny apartment—combined with how raw her emotions still were, it was almost too much to bear.</p><p>Suyin shook her head when she caught the eye of a young girl with fistfuls of her father’s hair as she steered him in whichever direction she pleased. She’d dallied long enough.</p><p>Just beyond the plaza, two blocks away, was the bike rental station. And then, after, sweet freedom. At last.</p><p>*</p><p>She paid the teenager manning the booth a sizable amount—it was enough for him to know that she probably wasn’t coming back with the bike in seven days like the sign said. But he was smart enough to stay out of her way as she went about her business. Probably had something to do with the permanent scowl she was wearing on her face, hair swept back in a bun for the ride ahead.</p><p>Suyin took one last look at the high walls of Republic City, all grey and drab with no character. That was simply what her home was: devoid of a soul. It only ever lit up when the Avatar was in town, but Uncle Aang wasn’t in charge of this city. He was only the reason people were willing to try and get along.</p><p>Gangs ran rampant in the alleyways, the slums in the outer ring. Remnants of old nationalists, yearning for “how things used to be.” Infighting no matter where you went. Stick around long enough and you’ll hear the yelling, deep in the night.</p><p>Suyin had heard enough from Toph to know about the true character of Republic City, and then she’d run into some boys from the Terra Triad some time back. They showed her the ropes. They showed her the <em>real </em>Republic City.</p><p>Everything was a façade here.</p><p>She was better off without it, she decided.</p><p>“Are you gonna say something, or are you just gonna stare at me all day like a creep?” she asked.</p><p>A deep rumble of a laugh was her answer. She looked over her shoulder, eyes narrowed, and saw the man she’d passed by on her way into the yard where all the bikes were parked. She’d picked the one she liked best—green was her favourite colour, go figure—and looked the least rundown. It just so happened that it was also the bike that was parked directly next to his.</p><p>The man looked no older than twenty, jet black hair swept back in shiny grease. He was trying to grow a goatee, it seemed. There was a light shadow over his chin. Nothing but tiny little baby hairs to mark his slow transition into manhood, or whatever he was after.</p><p>His golden eyes, though. Suyin knew it well. Fire Nation—or, well, a guy with firebender parents. She wondered if he was a bender, too, or just some rando with a fancy red leather jacket.</p><p>“Can’t help it. And lemme tell ya,” he said, leaning against the beam that propped up the roof over the row of bikes, “I’m rarely ever speechless, kitty.”</p><p>“Kitty?” Suyin went back to securing her knapsack on the side of her bike. “You must have me mistaken for someone else.”</p><p>“Oh, c’mon. You’re cute. I’m cute. What’s the matter?”</p><p>“I’m busy, that’s what.”</p><p>“Busy runnin’ away from home.”</p><p>Suyin met his gaze coolly. “You think you know me, don’t you?”</p><p>“With <em>those</em> eyes?” Red Leather Jacket grinned. “Anyone would, Miss Beifong. I saw youse runnin’ around with some boys from Terra a year ago. Who could forget a face like yours?”</p><p>She stopped what she was doing and fully turned towards him now. The name had fallen on the ears of the teenager at the booth. He began whistling aggressively and stepped away, far out of earshot.</p><p>Suyin fixed her full attention on the man before her now. “Kind of shitty not to give me your name, since you already know mine.”</p><p>He straightened himself and extended a hand to her. “Danzo. Dan for those I like.”</p><p>She crossed her arms.</p><p>“Nice to meet you, <em>Danzo</em>. I’ll be on my way now.”</p><p>“Whoa, what’s the rush? I’m just waiting for a few of my buddies and we’re goin’ out riding. Wanna come with?” He looked her up and down, taking all the time in the world to make it clear he was admiring her. “You don’t look like you’re in a rush.”</p><p>“I’m going to see my <em>boyfriend</em>, not that it’s any of your business. Can’t join ya this time, Danzo.” She turned away from him and reached for her helmet. “Maybe when I’m back in Republic City, huh?”</p><p>Danzo chuckled. “Just my luck to catch you on your way out, kitty. Maybe I’ll see you around and you can stop swervin’ me then. Leave your little boyfriend for a real guy. If you even have one.”</p><p>“I like your confidence.” Suyin smirked over her shoulder, helmet on. “The rest of you, not so much.”</p><p>“Ouch. You’re not good at goodbyes, are you?”</p><p>The bike revved to life, its growl reverberating across the yard. It thrummed with possibilities, with potential. For a split second she’d forgotten she was in the company of a huckster.</p><p>Suyin didn’t spare Danzo one last glance as she sped off, eyes fixed ever forward.</p><p>“No, I’m not.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Azula</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The wind felt damned good. Outside Republic City, the world laid at her feet.</p><p>Suyin watched the mountains, only mere shadows in the distance, as she sped further away from the city borders, following down a dirt path off the main road. There would be a small town not too far away; a former Earth Kingdom colony from the days of the Hundred Year War.</p><p>Suyin wasn’t one for studying history, but she remembered Uncle Aang’s stories vividly. Whenever they got together as one big, strange family—usually at Firelord Zuko’s summer house on Ember Island—Aang and Katara would be at the center of attention, telling another one of their favourite stories. Suyin would listen, Toph would chime in with factual errors on purpose, and Lin would be off somewhere with Tenzin being disgusting.</p><p>The Firelord and his wife would be there too, smiling and nodding in that dignified Fire Nation way. Once, Uncle Aang let a stray name fall from his lips and that royal dignity darkened into something close to shame.</p><p>
  <em>Azula.</em>
</p><p>Suyin didn’t know much about her, only that she was Zuko’s sister. And yet she’d never been present at any of their family gatherings. Aang would look crestfallen, apologetic, and Zuko—well, he’d just wave it away with a flurry of his embroidered sleeve and change the subject.</p><p>They never mentioned the Firelord’s sister again. She was probably dead, Suyin had surmised some years ago.</p><p>A flash of something red in the rear-view mirror brought her out of her reverie. In the distance, like a tiny little speck, was another rider on a bike. Two others behind them, flanked on each side.</p><p>Suyin knew that shade of red. That unmistakable form of a man wearing a leather jacket, his greasy hair glistening in the sunlight as he got closer.</p><p>There was no outrunning him—not when she was fast approaching rocky terrain. There was a valley looming ahead that she’d have to pass through and come out unscathed on the other side. Suyin would have to remember not to make the wrong turn and end up in uncharted swamp territory. Someone had disappeared in that swamp once, never to be seen again, all in broad daylight.</p><p>Danzo came up beside her, bellowing. “Fancy seeing you again so soon!”</p><p>“You’re following me. I want to know why!”</p><p>“Well, I just think you shouldn’t have blown me off like that, is all. My feelings are a little hurt, kitty!”</p><p>“Uh huh.” Suyin’s grip on the handlebars tightened. “Okay, well, see ya!”</p><p>The bike shuddered beneath her. They’d crossed over into bumpy territory, and the valley walls stretched high over the riders, reaching for the sky. Suyin sped up. Danzo kept pace with her easily; his riders were now flanking them both on either side.</p><p>“Listen! Why don’t you just come quietly with us?”</p><p>“No means no, huckster! Get with the program!”</p><p>“Heh.” Danzo’s eyes were glinting something fierce as he lifted his visor. “Maybe I shouldn’t have started out soft and sweet with you. Get her!”</p><p>Wrong move, Suyin thought. She released her grip on one handlebar and looked over her shoulder at the unfortunate rider on her left. At the flick of a wrist, the earth surged to life; a column of rock surged out of the ground, upending him and sending him flying.</p><p>Fire streaked across her very eyes, narrowly missing a chance to singe right through her helmet visor. So, Danzo <em>was </em>a firebender. Suyin swerved out of arm’s reach and kept at a safe distance, fist tightly clenched as she mustered her focus into the earth. Column after column came shooting out of the ground, attempting to waylay her pursuers, but the remaining two were far more alert than the first.</p><p>Danzo shot streams of flame into her bike’s trajectory, rocks bursting and ground hissing with a danger that had suddenly become very real in a short matter of time. Suyin focused on manoeuvring her way through the valley without getting a tire shot out, no longer able to earthbend, ride, <em>and </em>watch for fireballs at the same time.</p><p>The valley melted into a grey blur. Suyin looked ahead and saw where the rocky path began to diverge. It was time to make the right turn, or she’d miss it—</p><p>Or maybe—</p><p>Suyin’s eyes widened. She’d have to take a chance.</p><p>With one final look over her shoulder, Suyin punched a boulder in the direction of Danzo, but missed him as he swerved out of the way. She found a target in his friend instead. She decided it was good enough.</p><p>As she emerged into the blazing sunlight again, free of the valley, Suyin made a sharp turn left instead of right—</p><p>Into the forest, and away from her intended destination. For better or for worse.</p><p>*</p><p>He was a good rider. Too good. He’d nearly caught her twice. The fact that he’d stopped trying to firebend her to certain death meant only one thing: he wanted her alive. Suyin was determined to disappoint him again.</p><p>“No paths in the swamp, kitty! You won’t make it!”</p><p>She twisted the handlebars and her bike growled in assent. No turning back now.</p><p>Danzo’s shouts were lost to the wind as Suyin hurtled down the dirt path, swerving in and out of the way of trees. Soon there was no path left, no yelling sleazebag trying to get her attention—</p><p>A jet of flame shot out from behind Suyin, crackling through the trees.</p><p>She looked behind a second too late, realising that Danzo wasn’t trying to hit her square in the back but in the back of her bike. It was sharp and forceful enough that it put a hole in her tire, the rubber breaking from the impact of it.</p><p>Her bike swerved violently to the left before its front tire caught in a tangle of roots that had risen out of the old, wet earth. Suyin was too shocked to yell.</p><p>In a matter of seconds, her world turned upside down, and her bike heaved.</p><p>The last thing she remembered was the world turning dark—just a split second—and an arc of lightning reaching out like a gnarled hand. Danzo screamed, and all the lights went out.</p><p>*</p><p>Suyin jolted awake.</p><p>Everything was quiet. Warm. Dim? She sat up, alarmed to find covers draped over herself, and whipped her head around wildly for a few seconds. She was inside a hut—someone’s home? Someone… who saved her from the huckster firebender? A headache was spreading itself around the back of her head, and Suyin couldn’t suppress a groan.</p><p>She touched a hand tenderly to where the pain dug deepest.</p><p>“You flew right into a tree. It was quite amusing.”</p><p>Suyin looked to her right, where the voice had come from. Smooth, airy, pleased. For one reason or another, she was surprised to find that it was a woman sitting across from her, long dark hair pulled up into a topknot. The rest of it spilled over her shoulders and framed her face elegantly.</p><p>Eyes that burned like the sun. Firebender. Suyin paused. Lightning-bender, too.</p><p>“Well? Where are your manners?” the woman said shortly, though she wasn’t even looking at Suyin. She was contemplating her nails. “Didn’t your mother ever teach you what to say when someone saves you from your would-be kidnapper?”</p><p>“Hrm.” Suyin squinted. “You’re pretty for a swamp witch.”</p><p>That did it—the firebender woman flicked her wrist and sent a stray bolt of lightning out that was meant to miss Suyin’s face by inches.</p><p>“Wrong answer, but I’ll take the compliment.”</p><p>“Which one? Being pretty, or being a swamp witch?”</p><p>Golden eyes flashed with a warning. “Both.” A beat passed, and then the woman broke out into an easy smile. “Your mother didn’t teach you very well, did she.”</p><p>“Lucky guess.”</p><p>“No, you’re showing me she has very little to be proud of.”</p><p>“I know. She knows.” Suyin turned away as she winced; another wave of pain was washing over her. She must have hit her head pretty hard. “Ugh.”</p><p>“Lay down. You’ll repay me starting tomorrow.” The woman rose to her feet, wearing a faded red tunic and dark pants. “Or that bump on your head’s going to enlarge if you keep staring so rudely.”</p><p>Suyin laid down—not out of obedience, but necessity. Still, she looked at the woman with unveiled curiosity. There was something familiar about her face, but Suyin would know if they’d met before. She watched the stranger move over to the other side of the room—the full bounds of the hut, crossed in five large steps—to tend to a boiling pot.</p><p>While the woman had her back turned, Suyin said, “You can bend lightning. Not a lotta people can do that, ya know.”</p><p>“I <em>do</em> know. I am one of two lightning-benders in the world.”</p><p>“The <em>Firelord</em> can lightning-bend.”</p><p>A stiffness settled over the dark-haired woman’s back. But she did not turn, and simply kept stirring whatever was brewing in that pot. A deadly potion, as was befitting swamp witches?</p><p>“I know he can.”</p><p>Suyin furrowed her brows. “You know him?”</p><p>“Who doesn’t know the Firelord?”</p><p>Suyin chewed on her lower lip, intently watching the woman’s back. There was the faint smell of… something coming out of the pot. Mongoose meat? No, this was a swamp. Frog meat, maybe.</p><p>“Uncle Aang mentioned you once.”</p><p>For the second time that day, Suyin dodged a lightning bolt, and retreated under the covers.</p><p>*</p><p>“I thought you were dead.”</p><p>“Awfully presumptuous of you, seeing how we’ve never <em>once</em> met.”</p><p>Suyin watched Azula with eyes that grew wider with everything the firebender said. The way her features twisted with rage when Suyin hit a nerve before an invisible wind smoothed it over into nonchalance in the next half second. The way she moved around the hut with all the air of a princess, even though this was a swamp and the furthest thing from a royal court. Her fingernails, stubbornly free of dirt, while Suyin’s remained in an atrocious state.</p><p>She could see hints of Zuko, though she’d never say it out loud. They had the same eyes. Their father’s? Or their mother’s? Suyin tucked that question away for a later time, when Azula was in a more… agreeable mood.</p><p>“They looked so bothered when they heard your name.” Suyin hid behind a wall of steam rising out from her bowl. Azula could cook. She’d have to remember that. “You did a lot of stuff, huh?”</p><p>“Yes,” Azula said stiffly. “Stuff, as you say.”</p><p>She couldn’t be that much older than Toph. Could she? There wasn’t a single wrinkle on that royal face of hers, though Suyin knew the woman wasn’t a princess anymore. Maybe only in name. The Firelord would have said something by now if she was still a member of the royal family.</p><p>Suyin figured she needed to stop being “awfully presumptuous,” and start asking more questions.</p><p>“What <em>kind</em> of stuff?”</p><p>Azula stirred the mush in her bowl with a wooden spoon, staring into it as though she was searching for answers in there—or a hole to hide in.</p><p>“Seeing as how dear Uncle Aang tells so many bedtime stories, wouldn’t you already know the answer to that question?”</p><p>“No. They never said anything about you, other than your name, and that you’re Zuko’s sister—”</p><p>The princess—former princess?—slammed her bowl down onto the table with such force that Suyin was surprised none of the stew had sloshed out in the impact. There it was again, that seething, burning look in her eyes. Azula’s mouth had twisted into a scowl, and a shadow had eclipsed her elegant features.</p><p>“That’s <em>all </em>you need to know. Now be quiet and eat, or I’ll make sure the next lightning bolt I throw <em>won’t </em>miss.”</p><p>*</p><p>So, Azula was touchy. Prickly, too. Suyin busied herself with clean-up duty to remain in the firebender’s good graces—if they existed at all—while surreptitiously watching Azula out of the corner of her eye.</p><p>The woman didn’t do much. There were no books laying around, either. She mostly just… skulked and sulked, or sat in a corner to continue sulking. There was a strange distance in her eyes when she stopped paying attention, like she was remembering something—constantly, endlessly.</p><p>Then there’d be moments where her expression would smooth over, soften into something close to peace, and Azula would watch whatever was outside the window. Frogs, Suyin supposed.</p><p>“You’ve got to miss living in a palace, huh,” Suyin said, terribly conversational as she finished up her cleaning.</p><p>She heard Azula snort. “No one would willingly live in a swamp and claim that they enjoy the experience.”</p><p>“Don’t shit on swamp-dwellers. They’re real, you know.”</p><p>“If they are, they haven’t come to reclaim their territory.” Azula actually smiled, though she still wasn’t looking at Suyin.</p><p>Suyin dared to approach her again, feeling more brave now that she was no longer starving—or hurting. She saw Azula watching her in a sidelong glance, and settled down next to her. She wasn't sure if it was the stew still warming her up, or if Azula really <em>was </em>radiating heat more than the average firebender.</p><p>“So… why don’t you go back?”</p><p>Azula’s mouth curled into a grin. She turned to Suyin fully now, openly watching her face. She tilted her head, suddenly inquisitive. </p><p>“The same reason <em>you</em> haven’t gone back to your mother. She must be getting antsy and all riled up.”</p><p>“Psh.” Suyin steeled her gaze, bolder by the second. She wondered if Azula had other powers too, like being able to see into the reaches of someone's soul and find their worst secrets. She certainly had the look for it. “You don’t know my mom.”</p><p>Azula’s grin widened. “Don’t I? Well, do tell.” She leaned forward, hair spilling over her shoulders like a dark river.</p><p>“What’s Toph Beifong like as a mother?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. The Longest Day in Republic City</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Toph Beifong was having one very annoying, very long day.</p><p>Normally she’d just call it a shitty day and go, but today was different. Vastly different, if the migraine assaulting her senses was anything to go by. Toph was nursing a hot cup of tea on her left and reading reports on her right, fingers idly tracing over the raised bumps on her papers, when Lin knocked on the door to her office. Toph knew Lin by the rhythm of her heartbeat, the same way she knew Su’s—that, and Lin always walked with grave, heavy steps.</p><p><em>And </em>she’d hesitate for exactly three seconds whenever she came up to Toph’s door before knocking.</p><p>“Come in.”</p><p>She heard the door slide open and slide shut. Lin approached her desk slowly. Toph abandoned the report and brought the steaming cup to her lips. “Did you find her?”</p><p>“No,” came Lin’s quiet defeat. “We ought to file a missing person’s report now. It’s been more than twenty-four hours. I tried searching all her usual haunts, tracked down her old… acquaintances… from Terra Triad, to no avail.”</p><p>There was a brief pause. Something passed between mother and daughter, thick in the air. Toph knew it by Lin’s jumpy heartbeat that she was disappointed, and frantic that her mother would be similarly let down by her failure.</p><p>“It’s okay.” She took a quick sip of the tea. Leaf juice, as Zuko enjoyed calling it. Too bad old Iroh wasn’t around to be annoyed at that anymore. “I’m going to head out and find her. You’ll fill in for me, won’t you?”</p><p>“I’m sor—what?” Lin sputtered. “I thought—I thought you’d be angrier.”</p><p>“It was Suyin’s choice to leave,” Toph said simply, setting down the cup. Lin’s pulse was quickening. The police chief rose to her feet. “However, once I find her—and I will—she won’t have the luxury of a choice of coming home.”</p><p>“Then… I’ll go with you.”</p><p>“Nuh uh. You’re holding down the fort.”</p><p>“<em>Mother</em>.”</p><p>Toph waved a hand in Lin’s direction. “I’ll find her. You won’t even have time to settle into my seat. Promise.”</p><p>“It’s just—you can’t just <em>make </em>me the interim chief. There’s—<em>protocol</em> to abide by.”</p><p>Toph could almost imagine the look on her daughter’s face, if she knew at all what a scandalised person looked like. Stepping around her desk, Toph gently placed a hand on Lin’s shoulder. The kid was much too serious to only be twenty-one years of age.</p><p>“Come on,” she said, squeezing lightly. “<em>I’m </em>protocol around here. And I’d rather not let some <em>other </em>interim police chief tell the entire station that Toph’s lost her daughter.” A pause. “Again.”</p><p>Lin bristled. “So I’m filling in only because <em>I</em> won’t tell on you?”</p><p>What the actual hell? “That’s… <em>not</em> what this is. What,” Toph turned fully to face Lin now, “Now <em>both </em>my daughters are trying to be difficult with me? C’mon, Linny.”</p><p>“Hrm.” Lin stiffened slightly but didn’t move away. Toph patted her gently on the shoulder, unable to understand why Lin was choosing this precise moment to be dramatic (well, dramatic by Lin’s standards). “All right. I’ll do my best.”</p><p>“You always do, kid. Now—”</p><p>“<em>I’m sorry, sir, but you can’t just go barging into the police chief’s—</em>”</p><p>“Get off me—<em>I know where the police chief’s daughter is! She was kidnapped by a witch in the swamp!</em>”</p><p>“Well,” Toph muttered to herself, “Guess we don’t have to keep it under wraps anymore.”</p><p>*</p><p>The man was shaking, clearly, but not from the cold, though Toph could hear the unmistakable <em>drip drip drip </em>of what she assumed to be swamp water—ugh—all over the carpet as he was led to the nearest seat. No, there was something different about the way he was shivering; Toph could hear it in his pulse, painfully disjointed.</p><p>There was trauma in his very blood, jolting about as though he was suffering aftershocks.</p><p>Everyone parted ways for Toph and Lin to emerge from the back of the station. Smoothly, the police chief slid into the chair closest to the man who had just barged in with Su’s name on his lips.</p><p>“Speak,” Toph said shortly. “You said something about my daughter, and a witch.”</p><p> “Yes, yes—Chief Beifong—I w-was out riding e-earlier this morning and… and… saw your daughter—S-Suyin?—on a b-bike, headed past the swamp wh-wh-when…”</p><p>He had a greasy voice. Were he not so shaken up, Toph supposed he would have been the smooth-talking sort.</p><p>“The witch, as you say,” Lin interjected, when the man paused to take a breather.</p><p>“Y-yes,” he chittered, “I saw her attack y-your daughter w-with lightning and—and—I tried to h-help—”</p><p>Toph held up a hand. “Did you <em>actually </em>say lightning?”</p><p>“Yes—the witch—the woman—cast lightning with her b-b-bare hands!”</p><p>Now there was a gentle murmur rippling across the station. Toph’s ears pricked. Other police officers were whispering and muttering about the “swamp witch,” something Toph had dismissed a little over a year ago after they had discovered the charred body of a popular club owner floating in the river, downstream from the swamp that stood between Republic City and an oasis. A giant lake surrounded by a greater forest, said to hold spiritual secrets not known to any man.</p><p>Well, except Aang, who claimed his connection to his past selves strengthened every time he set foot in that place.</p><p>The dead body had been burnt to a near crisp. The work of a rogue firebender, perhaps. Perhaps the “swamp witch” was a firebender. But when Toph had combed the area with Lin and a sizeable force of officers, they’d found nothing. The swamp had been uninhabited by anyone who could have been human—only the occasional swamp monster and a sickeningly large population of frogs.</p><p>They'd closed the case and chalked it down to murder borne out of gang rivalries (and there were plenty no matter where you looked in the outer city), but they never could find the one responsible.</p><p>“You saw her with your own two eyes?” Toph asked simply, still distracted by memories of that old case.</p><p>“I did—I did—” The young man shuddered audibly. “She was wearing r-r-red, had long d-dark hair, and she z-z-zapped me when I tried to s-stop her—GAH!”</p><p>Toph’s hand had come down in a hearty slap over his shoulder, nearly jolting the poor kid out of his skin. “Now <em>that’s </em>what I like to hear. Someone get this man another towel! The rest of you, back to your stations! Lin, with me.”</p><p>“Yes, chief.”</p><p>Just as quickly as things had slowed to a halt around the station, the men and women under Toph scattered as quick as the wind at her word. Everything fell back into place, except one thing.</p><p>
  <em>Dark-haired woman? Lightning-zapper? Who the heck was he raving about? And why don’t I want to know the answer to that?</em>
</p><p>Toph closed the door behind her after Lin allowed herself to be ushered back into the chief’s office.</p><p>“His testimony’s reliable, isn’t it?” Lin asked, settling herself into the nearest chair. “He looks like he runs with some outer city gang. He’d have known Suyin from… before, when she still hung out with those vandals.”</p><p>“Mm.” Toph settled down beside her daughter, contemplative. “Though why would a random swamp witch want to bother with a fifteen-year-old girl?”</p><p>Lin snorted softly. “I can think of a few reasons why.”</p><p>“Hooey.” Toph shook her head. “All those stupid stories we used to tell you kids when you were, well, kids. Uncle Twinkle Toes just has a flair for theatrics. And besides—Suyin isn’t wild about nature. <em>You </em>are.”</p><p>“I—you remember that?”</p><p>But Toph was only half-listening. “Mm. Remember on her tenth birthday, we went to Ember Island with everyone else, and she was so terrified of those little sand crabs that had come out crawling after she went stomping down the beach?”</p><p>Lin’s voice faltered. “Ah. You mean to say she wouldn’t have gone into a swamp willingly.”</p><p>“Yeah. She would’ve steered clear.” Toph nodded, more to herself than to Lin. “There’s a town just on the other side of the valley outside of Republic City. Earth Kingdom colony, or used to be. Su would’ve gone there instead of wheeling herself into her worst nightmare.”</p><p>“So?” Toph heard a rustle of fabric as Lin crossed her arms. “We have a lead, at least. Some strange woman with lightning at her fingertips.”</p><p>“That we do.” Toph slid out of her chair. “I’m going to go and take a look, see if I can’t find your sister hiding under a rock somewhere.”</p><p>Lin, too, stood up. There was a tightness in her voice as she spoke, an indignant lilt directed at what was possibly Toph's cavalier attitude about the entire situation. “And I’m going to run things while you’re gone?”</p><p>“A-yup. So good luck on your first day! Oh, and Linny, one more thing.”</p><p>“Yes, Mother?”</p><p>Toph slid the office door open, and paused under the archway.</p><p>“Keep an eye on that boy, will you?”</p><p>*</p><p>Times like these, Toph sorely wished Twinkle Toes was still around with Appa in tow. An airlift would be nice, even if she had to endure his mindless chatter about the latest air temple he’d discovered. It was better than hoofing it like this, in any case. A junior officer had offered to transport her, but Toph had refused the idea of dragging someone else along and angering—not to mention embarrassing—Suyin even more.</p><p>She knew the rules of this game. She had been to her own parents what Suyin now was to her—a force of nature, meant to be nurtured instead of held down. To be understood. And yet, for all of Toph’s experience with running away from her family to find herself, she was finding it difficult to understand her youngest daughter.</p><p>She’d done everything right, hadn’t she? Mothered her children the way her own mother failed to—which was to give them enough space to be themselves. Treated them like equals, instead of belittling their potential. Never coddled them, not even once. Held them accountable for every single fuck up.</p><p>Wasn’t that what a kid wanted? Needed? Katara had laughed when Toph told her that while she’d been in town with Aang and the kids. Toph couldn’t understand how Katara still managed to be so insufferably all-knowing, even after all these years of dealing with unpredictable airbender kids (not to mention an equally unpredictable husband).</p><p>The waterbender had patted her hand gently and said something convoluted like, “Every child is a different universe, all on their own. Even if you think they’re echoes of who you are.”</p><p>Ugh. No. Toph would not lose herself in another spiral of thoughts about her capability as a parent. She would contemplate where she went wrong in the privacy of her home much later, when Suyin was finally back and locked away in her room. The little twerp.</p><p>Besides, there was something else that niggled harder at the back of her head: the lightning-witch in the swamp.</p><p>Once she was clear of Republic City’s outer limits, Toph gave herself a running start. Then she leaped into the air and felt the familiar touch of earth and rock under her bare feet, rising at her call.</p><p>Toph couldn’t remember the last time she did this, sailing over the earth and feeling like she owned the whole world. Maybe before she’d settled down to have Lin, all by herself. Easily twenty years ago, when Republic City had not yet become Republic City. She remembered promising herself she’d show Lin how it was done, just like this, tunnelling through the earth as quick as any airbender could be on a strong, windy day.</p><p>Then life happened, and Twinkle Toes had the audacity to name Toph as police chief over all of Republic City. Her metalbending students, he’d said, would follow her into law enforcement, if it was something she felt she could do.</p><p>There was nothing a Beifong couldn’t do. Lao and Poppy had been so proud when she said yes.</p><p>After all, there was nothing like the feeling of finally being taken seriously, despite your limitations. There was nothing like people deferring to your authority when you were a woman, and probably way shorter than all your colleagues. Now that was <em>real </em>power that befitted an earthbender.</p><p>That, and being able to say shit like “justice is blind” to thousands of people and enjoying how much they hated it. Zuko, in particular, had reportedly gotten up to leave for a hot minute out of embarrassment. That was the Beifong way.</p><p>There was nothing a Beifong couldn’t do. Nothing. And as Toph neared her destination, she hoped it was still true.</p><p>She hoped, in that brief moment where she was well and truly alone after all these years, for a number of things:</p><p>That she could find Suyin and convince her to come home.</p><p>That she could still be a mother to her children.</p><p>That it wasn’t too late to show Lin and Suyin how to sail across the earth as though it were made of water.</p><p>That she could find, at the end of this very long day, an hour to stretch her toes in the comfort of her own home, nodding off to the sound of Suyin’s singing in the kitchen again.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Friends Call Me Su</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Azula was cackling. Or screeching. Or a horrible combination of both, something that skirted too close to the sound of shattering glass for Suyin to be comfortable. She tucked away even more new information at the back of her mind: that not all princesses had fluttery, cotton candy laughter like she’d thought. The crown princess—that is, Zuko’s daughter, who was twenty-four years of age and looked thirty (in a good way, Suyin swore once to Lin in confidence)—had a laugh that reminded the earthbender of the beginnings of spring. Azula, though—she was an entirely different beast, all on her own.</p><p>They were seated across from each other in the middle of the hut. The late afternoon sunlight slanted over the floorboards through the window, a bright, gooey orange glow that looked like someone had spilled a slow pool of yolk all over the ground. She’d spent the last half hour or so retelling the story of how her mother had left her at the police station one day, despite the fact that Suyin had been discreetly brought in for disciplining after being caught red-handed by Lin while she was vandalising the side of a bus station with her old friends from Terra Triad.</p><p>As it turned out, it was a story that Azula deeply enjoyed. Her eyes crinkled with real delight at the corners, and though her laugh was unbearable, there was a sort of radiance that was spreading across her features at that moment that made her look ten years younger. Suyin realised dimly that it was the first time Azula looked like she was truly at ease and having fun, instead of flitting rapidly between different shades of broody and unfriendly. Now it was a princess, not some ragged runaway with a troubled past, that Suyin was looking at—and sharing a meal with.</p><p>“Oh, Agni,” Azula brushed at a stray tear at the corner of her eye, “Even when we were kids, your mother never struck me as someone who could, well, be a mother. This is so very delightful.”</p><p>“At least one of us is enjoying this,” Suyin said, mildly irritated. “That day, I learnt the bus route home all on my own. Lin had called in sick, so it was just me against the world.”</p><p>Azula’s grin softened into something that resembled admiration. “Younger daughters always are the more resourceful ones, you know. Take it from me.”</p><p>Suyin lifted a brow, mouth quirking. “Are you saying you’re better than the Firelord?”</p><p>Azula’s eyes narrowed with glee, all cat-like. “I don’t have to say it. I nearly bested him in an Agni Kai once, though he’d never openly admit to it, I suppose.”</p><p>“’Nearly’ isn’t good enough.” Suyin shrugged at Azula’s expression, which was rapidly souring. “Mom’s words, not mine. She used to yell that all the time at the metalbending academy. But—wait, you fought the Firelord? Why?”</p><p>“Why? What do you mean <em>why</em>.”</p><p>“Because I know nothing about you, or why you don’t hang out with us at Ember Island every year,” Suyin said, gesturing to Azula. “The adults like to keep things from us, pretending we’re too delicate for it.”</p><p>Azula’s irritation began to recede; Suyin could see it in her eyes. There, a fire burned low or high depending on the princess’ mood. Now Azula was pulling her knees up to her chest, contemplative. There was no predicting when she was going to cooperate and be civil; it was more a game of chance than anything else. Something as harmless as commenting on the weather could set her off, provided you stepped on the right landmine, picked the right (or wrong) words. All Suyin knew was that Uncle Aang and Uncle Zuko’s names were strictly prohibited. Like, lightning-in-your-face prohibited.</p><p>And yet, for one reason or another, Azula was perfectly happy to discuss Toph. Weird.</p><p>“How old are you?” Azula asked plainly as she began to pick at a loose thread at the edge of her tunic.</p><p>“Fifteen. But I’ll be sixteen next summer,” Suyin said proudly.</p><p>Azula tugged the thread off in a quick snap. “Hmm. That’s not too young. You’re almost a woman. Far from a helpless, delicate child. Did you know,” she lifted her eyes to meet Suyin’s ever-curious gaze, “that I led armies into battle as a thirteen-year-old girl?”</p><p>Suyin’s eyes widened. The girl leaned in, evidently intrigued. “No way!”</p><p>“Oh, indeed.” Azula straightened her back, stretched out her legs again, and allowed a little smile to surface. “I did many things for my lord father then, in the name of the Fire Nation. Things your mother and every adult in your life will tell you are far too dangerous.” She tilted her head, dark hair swaying gently with the motion. “Though I gather you’re not the type to shy away from danger, as evidenced by your dramatic entrance.”</p><p>“Psh.” Suyin blew away a loose strand of hair, blush creeping over her cheeks. “That was me improvising. He really wouldn’t leave me alone. But don’t change the subject—” Her eyes glowed like emeralds, shining with determination, “—I wanna know. Tell me.”</p><p>“Stories? Of those, I have plenty, I assure you.” Azula’s smile lingered as she watched the girl rock back and forth. There was something endearing about this child, even though she was very much an intruder—and an unwelcome disruption to her plans. And yet… “Shall we make a deal, little Beifong?”</p><p>Suyin wrinkled her nose like she’d just smelled something foul. “<em>Suyin </em>will do just fine. Or Su. Friends call me Su.”</p><p>“Su.” Azula nodded. “I suppose that means we’re friends,” she said, a little devilish about it. It was ridiculous, unthinkable. What friend could she find in the child of her enemy?</p><p>“Suppose so.” Suyin mirrored Azula now, straightening her back. “So, you said something about a deal?”</p><p>“Oh, yes. Since I rescued you and all… I did mention repayment, did I not? For keeping that unruly boy off your back, I’d like you to do something for me.” Azula leaned forward. “In return, I’ll tell you whatever you wish to know.”</p><p>Suyin’s brows lowered into a slight frown. “Something illegal?”</p><p>“Not at all. But it’ll be a tad bit dangerous. If you’re afraid, I’ll simply have to do it myself—”</p><p>“Hey!” Suyin was glowering. “I’ve pulled off robberies and fought my fair share of hucksters back when I was running around with Terra Triad. There’s nothin’ a Beifong can’t do.”</p><p>How cute. She was puffing out her chest in a predictable display of pride. Azula could almost see Toph Beifong in that moment, twelve years old and every bit the insufferable brat the princess remembered her to be. If there was any doubt that the girl before her now was Toph’s daughter, Azula now knew it to be a certainty.</p><p>“Perfect,” she said. “I happen to be in the area for an exceedingly rare herb. It’s further in the forest, near the giant crater.”</p><p>“You mean the lake.”</p><p>“Yes, the lake. It used to be just a crater, did you know that?” Azula turned to look out the window at the darkening sky outside. “It was said that long ago, before you and I were born, a comet crashed into the middle of the forest. As it turned out, the comet was a dragon. It laid to rest here, guarded the forest, and eventually died. Then a lake sprang out of the ground, just like that. Many people have wandered into the forest in a bid to hunt it down for its precious scales. But they were never to be seen again.”</p><p>The sun had slipped into obscurity, cloaking them in darkness. The frogs’ incessant croaking finally died down, and there was nothing but the soft chitter of the occasional cricket. Azula’s tale left Suyin feeling a little more than creeped out, and she hugged her knees to her chest.</p><p>Azula looked back at Suyin. “But that was just a children’s tale they used to tell in the Fire Nation, of course, to prevent children from wandering into places they shouldn’t be going,” she said, suddenly conversational once more. “It’s really nothing but a lake. The herb I seek grows along its banks, and it is said to have healing properties that will cure even the most serious of afflictions.”</p><p>“If it’s nothing but a lake,” Suyin said, “then why can’t you go get it yourself?”</p><p>Azula smiled, dagger-sharp. “Because if I’m going to revisit some of the most painful memories in my life, then you’re going to have to make it worth it. Do we have a deal, Su?”</p><p>Suyin lowered her gaze, contemplative. “Why did you say it would be dangerous, then?”</p><p>“Swamps are known to inhabit more than just harmless frogs and eels in the water, Su,” Azula said in a sweet tone. It reminded Suyin of condescending academy teachers who loved talking down to the kids. “I imagine the further you venture in, the more likely you’ll encounter something bigger than a fully grown bullfrog, yes?”</p><p>“Ugh.” Suyin dropped her head into her hands. “I hate wildlife.”</p><p>Azula threw her head back and laughed.</p><p>“And here I thought we had nothing at all in common!”</p><p>*</p><p>There was a spare bedroll Azula had lying around, much to Suyin’s relief. It felt horribly worn in her hands (she could only guess Azula’s been traveling plenty until now), though, but Suyin wouldn’t complain. It was better than laying on the cold, hard floorboards, where who-knows-what lived beneath them, waiting to wriggle out in the dead of night. She positioned it a few feet away from Azula, who was sitting with her legs crossed on the bed and seemingly meditating. A nightly ritual?</p><p>She sat down. It was late enough that even the crickets had gone away, or maybe they just fell asleep. All that’s left was the soft wind of Azula’s breathing, deep and deliberate. She watched the woman openly, without pretense, and mimicked the way she kept her back so perfectly still and straight. Her palms were open, resting on the top of either knee, and it was most likely the calmest Suyin had ever seen Azula being.</p><p>Well, so far.</p><p>“Let me teach you what your mother clearly did not: it is rude to stare.”</p><p>“Sorry,” Suyin mumbled, turning away. “Just—wondering what you were doing.”</p><p>Silence reigned, and Suyin supposed that was that. Azula wasn’t always chatty. Maybe she was tired out from all that conversation, after spending such a long time alone in the swamp, or wherever it is she’s been—</p><p>“Firebenders,” Azula was suddenly saying, “draw power from their core. It’s all in the breathing.”</p><p>Suyin turned to look by way of a sideways glance. “So… like dragons?”</p><p>“Like dragons. There’s a flame in every one of us. Disrupt that connection to your core, stray from one’s center, and your fire goes out.”</p><p>Now her eyes were open, and she was turning to face Suyin. She stretched out her legs over the side of the bed, then crossed one over the other. Azula blinked slow before she said, “I’ll tell you one thing about me tonight, Su. I wanted my brother dead. I held the throne, the Fire Nation, the whole world,” she lifted a palm turned skyward, “in my hands. And I was determined not to let anyone take that from me.”</p><p>A tuft of blue flame swelled into existence. Suyin found herself mesmerised by the colour of it. She had never seen a firebender do <em>that </em>before.</p><p>“I spent most of my life in the palace knowing my place,” Azula said, gaze trained on the burning blue flame. “I was never going to become Firelord. I was never destined for greatness that a firstborn would have. But I did everything in my power to show everyone how much I deserved it, too. I led generals into war. Fought the Avatar, fought my own brother, fought everyone who said I couldn’t, who wanted only to <em>take </em>from me. That,” she curled her open palm into a tight fist, fire dying out with a hiss, “is why they don’t speak of me at your sweet family gatherings. Because I wanted it all.”</p><p>Suyin swallowed audibly. “That’s… uh. That’s rough, buddy.”</p><p>Azula huffed a laugh. “Quite the understatement. My own mother, as well, refused me. She only ever saw to what was best for my brother. So I ran, the minute she came back home. The minute Zuko chose her over me, I ran.” There was a bitterness edging into her voice now as she closed her eyes. She took a deep breath. Suyin could hear the raggedness of it as the firebender fought for control over her emotions. “Here I am. Evil, unwanted… perhaps even dangerous. <em>That’s </em>why they don’t speak of me. Even now, I suppose they still have reason to fear me. To pretend as though I were dead. I suppose they are justified. Is that what you wanted to hear?”</p><p>“I don’t know.” </p><p>“What <em>do </em>you know, little girl?” Azula asked darkly.</p><p>Suyin felt a chill skitter down her spine when Azula looked at her, a strange violence to her expression that made the princess nearly unrecognisable. Well, nearly unrecognisable, save for one thing. The shadow of something familiar settled over Azula’s face, that guided every micro-expression. There was almost a language to it, something Suyin knew—and couldn’t avoid knowing.</p><p>She lowered her gaze, unable to look the princess in the eye any longer.</p><p>“That we have a little bit more in common than I thought, too.”</p><p>A rustle of fabric was her only answer. Something had shifted in the air, fleeting as it were. Suyin sniffed, then looked up. Azula had laid down, pulled the covers over her completely. There was nothing of the princess there, just a slowly breathing lump, perfectly still. Suyin watched the rise and fall of it for a couple of seconds, then laid down to rest too.</p><p>She closed her eyes and turned her back to Azula, who had likely done the same.</p><p>Then came a voice, gentle and unassuming: “Why won’t you go back home to your mother?”</p><p>Suyin swallowed her own tears. “She doesn’t see me.”</p><p>“That has got to be a joke,” Azula muttered, but it was quiet enough that Suyin heard her.</p><p>“She doesn’t,” the earthbender said, with more steel in her voice this time. “I don’t want to go back. Okay?”</p><p>Seconds stretched into a long minute. Then, for the very last time that night, Azula spoke—this time with certainty; a kind of simplicity that sounded so much like finality. Like a promise.</p><p>“Very well. Then you don’t have to.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>It actually surprised me to see this story gain so much attention in such a short amount of time (fun fact: this just started out as a writing exercise to warm myself up for another fic I have on here that's been put on the back-burner after quarantine began). Thank you guys! In case it wasn't already obvious, we're deviating from TLOK canon quite a bit; according to the show, Toph sent Suyin away to live with Lao and Poppy after she got busted for taking part in a robbery with her old gang, but obviously this doesn't happen here. (I mean, lol, Azula's very presence is already a huge deviation from canon. But we don't get enough Azula content, so I'm here with food for everyone.) Anyway, I'm excited for TLOK to hit Netflix next month! Another reason not to slip further into quarantine-induced fatigue and depression! We'll take what we can get!!!!</p>
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<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Lightning-Bender</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Suyin got up bright and early the next day. Azula, on the other hand, wasn’t running on anyone’s schedule, and remained blissfully asleep until Suyin had made enough noise dumping out all her things onto the floor, emptying her rucksack out for the journey further inland. The princess rose out of bed with minimal bed hair troubles. Suyin felt a touch of envy looking at her; did the woman simply sleep like she was dead, without moving an inch, or was this just another princess thing?</p><p>“What in Agni’s name are you doing, making a mess all over my living room floor?” Azula asked plainly as she got to her feet, though it was clear that she didn’t like being roused from slumber before she decided it was time to awaken. She padded over to the window to peer outside while combing slender fingers through her hair to smooth out the knots.</p><p>“This entire place is your living room.” Suyin eyed her briefly before returning to the task at hand. “I’m packing. Or <em>un</em>packing. I’m going to leave some stuff here while I go out and get your vegetable.”</p><p>“Herb.”</p><p>“That’s what I <em>said</em>.”</p><p>Azula muttered something about “teenagers” under her breath, but said no more.</p><p>Amused, Suyin went back to sorting out what she wanted to bring along for the hike. If it was going to be a quick grab-and-go, she wouldn’t need <em>all </em>the food she’d brought along. Just enough to last her for a whole day. Azula watched her while absently pulling her hair up into a topknot.</p><p>“That’s a lot of food for someone so small.”</p><p>“Hey. I’m a growing girl.” Suyin artfully arranged her supplies in a little stack, propped up against the wall next to the bedroll. “If you’re hungry, you can take some while I’m gone. Have you ever had glazed squid?”</p><p>Azula grimaced, though her eyes reflected genuine interest. “Of <em>course </em>I have. I’m not some woodland savage. And besides, are you sure those will keep for… however long you intend to keep them for?”</p><p>“They’ll keep for another couple days. Then I’ll restock at the next town when I get there.” Suyin slung the now-much-lighter bag over her shoulder, secured the straps, then got to her feet. ”See ya in a hot minute, ‘kay?”</p><p>“Hrm.” Azula only nodded as she watched Suyin go, an unreadable expression on her face.</p><p>With any luck, the girl would be back before sundown. <em>If </em>she was lucky. If not, then Azula would have to move on, regroup, and find another way to break through the forest herself to find that elusive lake.</p><p>Something pricked at her soul, and she looked to the empty doorway through which Suyin had just vanished. She stared deeply into the distance, wondering why she felt compelled to suddenly run after the girl.</p><p>But already, the forest was moving. Shifting, as it were. Once again, the outside scenery had changed. Already, Azula knew Suyin Beifong was lost to her until the forest decided that she should return, safe and sound with Azula’s prize in hand. One could only hope, if they did not believe in the goodness of gods and spirits any longer.</p><p>*</p><p>Toph wasn’t sure how long she’d been walking around this forest, but it was starting to feel like someone was playing a trick on her. It was now her third time passing the same ugly boulder, its shape unmistakable to her by way of seismic sense, and its unique ridges and grooves a dead giveaway when she idly touched the flat of her palm over it. Chasing down a lead for a missing person was already enough of a headache. Now Toph had to deal with the fact that she was hopelessly, absolutely lost.</p><p>It was infuriating, only because she’d taken all the care in the world to make sure she wasn’t making the wrong turns and walking in one big circle. And yet.</p><p>There was a strange voice on the wind as it billowed through the swamp-forest-hellscape. Toph wasn’t sure if she was just starving or if it really <em>was </em>getting much colder the longer she spent here, trudging through mudflats.</p><p>And then, out of nowhere, she walked right into something metallic and struck herself on her big toe. Un-fucking-fortunate, to say the least.</p><p>“Fuck!”</p><p>Republic City’s finest, master metalbender Toph Beifong, leaped back with a yelp of pain and surprise. She reached down to clutch at her aggrieved foot, though the petty pulse of pain was the last thing on her mind right now. How had she not seen what was right in front of her? A bike—just like the lightning-struck boy had mentioned.</p><p> “Fuckin’… what the hell…” Toph took a second to recover, and then dropped into a crouch. The bike was cool to the touch. It had been a while since anyone was around, then, revving up a vehicle like this in the middle of a sopping wet swamp. Suyin? No, wait. There was something else, not far from here. Toph stood up and side-stepped the bike, able to see far enough to find another up ahead. There was the faintest smell of something burnt in the air, all around her. Charred wood in the mix. It was faint, but there it was.</p><p>Lightning-bender?</p><p>Toph inspected the second bike. A tire had been shot out, rubber burnt to dust. Firebender handiwork, then. But it didn’t make any sense—swamp witches wouldn’t be scooting around on bikes all willy nilly like this, chasing random earthbender girls determined to run away from their moms.</p><p>No, her better sense told her. Something else happened here. Something the boy had neglected to tell Toph—or kept from her.</p><p>How did he know Suyin had gone missing, run away? Anyone would’ve simply assumed she was out for a ride, as she was wont to do. Toph had never kept her from that hobby, so long as Suyin returned home in one piece.</p><p><em>He was chasing her. Shot her tire out. Someone else saw… shot lightning. At both of them? But he ran back to the city—she didn’t. Then—she really </em>was <em>taken? </em></p><p>She got up and kept moving. No point talking to metal for answers. The earth, though. That was another thing altogether. The earth, nature—it always remembered. Toph followed what she hoped was a sensible trail, or just her sixth sense. Where the swamp hadn’t yet washed over the land completely, Toph found an intermittent trail of footprints. Heavy, sunken into dried mud. A single set of prints.</p><p>If Suyin had been injured in that crash, been anywhere near that, then…</p><p>Someone carried her off. Toph tried not to let her anxiety mount as she moved further into the forest. The howling wind had died down; the spirits had chosen this moment to stop speaking, it seemed. But the air still felt like it was frozen over. Toph didn’t believe in ghost stories, in haunted places that held nothing but trickery and illusion for no good reason, messing with mortals, but it was beginning to feel like she needed to revisit some of her convictions and beliefs today.</p><p>She walked for what felt like another hour. Despite her looming exhaustion, Toph was grateful, at least, for one thing: she was stepping away from the swamp and back onto dry land, where the rest of the forest likely awaited her. Fine. She’d take tough, dry soil over shitty swamp sludge any day.</p><p>Another hour passed—or maybe it had only been ten minutes, who the hell knew anymore—and Toph emerged into a clearing. She smelled something distinct in the air—glazed squid? Her heart leaped in a song of hope. It had always been Suyin’s favourite. She moved quicker now, following what her senses were telling her. There was someone here and it was probably—</p><p>“Suyin!”</p><p>She heard the unmistakable sound of feet scraping over wooden floorboards. A panicked scramble. Toph came up to the hut, seeing it through her seismic sense. There was someone in there, alright, but they looked too tall to be Suyin. Toph’s spirit flagged a little, but she kept moving. Whoever it was, they must have seen her daughter. No way in hell was some swamp-dweller chancing upon glazed squid out of nowhere. No such luck.</p><p>Toph pushed open the door to the hut. She could see the outline of the swamp-dweller in the corner of the hut. A low hiss emanated from that same corner, a sound of pure warning.</p><p>The police chief took one careful step in and was greeted with a bolt of lightning just a few inches to the left of her face. Wood splintered and caught fire, the acrid smell of smoke nearly choking Toph to tears.</p><p>
  <em>Lightning-bender!</em>
</p><p>The swamp-dweller—no, swamp <em>witch</em>—scrambled to her feet. Toph could see a little clearer now, the outline of the witch’s silhouette, the wave of her long hair as she rose to full height. There was no mistaking it now—and the witch knew it too. The frantic hummingbird pulse told Toph everything she needed to know.</p><p>This person <em>knew</em> her. As plain as day.</p><p>And there was only one other person in the world who could channel lightning apart from Sparky.</p><p>“<em>You</em>,” she said in a low voice. “What the <em>hell</em> did you do to my daughter?”</p><p>*</p><p>It was just as well that her day was spectacularly ruined, all before noon.</p><p>Despite her very brief time in this forest, even Azula had to admit that getting her house wrecked stung. Toph Beifong was still as bull-headed as ever, wrecking things with her hands when words began to fail her and understanding reduced itself to a pipe dream. In a bold move—and an attempt to stop the earthbender from bringing the entire hut down around them both—Azula shot forward with a jet of flames propelling her. She caught Toph by the shoulders and tackled her outside.</p><p>The earth shook with an awful groan of warning as they skidded in a rough landing. If she wasn’t at risk of losing her life right there and then, Azula might have admired the growth of the little earthbender’s prowess.</p><p>As it stood, now was not the time for idle thoughts about an old nemesis.</p><p>The firebender rolled off the top of her opponent, just in time to narrowly avoid being pummelled square in the face by a flying boulder. Toph was punching rocks at her at breakneck speed, forcing Azula to leap from one position to another to escape being crushed to a pulp. The earthbender wasn’t holding back; there was a fire in her eyes that thrilled Azula for one reason or another.</p><p>“My daughter, you stupid witch!” Toph snarled. “Better start talkin’ before you start eatin’ these rocks!”</p><p>Azula bared her fangs in a grin.</p><p>She kicked a jet of fire towards the next incoming boulder. It exploded in a shower of rock bits, raining all over the battlefield. The next kick sent another wave of fire forward, burning bright and blue. Toph dropped into a roll out of the way and smoothly recovered, then punched both fists forward. In the next second, she brought them apart in a violent gesture. The earth suddenly split apart. It looked like the maw of some large beast was opening up where Azula was standing, startling the firebender.</p><p>She leaped forward, just in time to avoid being swallowed whole by the ground. Instead of scrambling away to safety, Azula propelled towards Toph for the second time that day, deciding that proximity would protect her better than distance, where the earthbender could take annoyingly accurate shots at her.</p><p>“Your <em>daughter </em>is not here, old friend,” Azula said, mad with glee. Her hands came up to grip Toph by the collar, sparking with electricity. “You’re barking up the wrong tree!”</p><p>They tumbled further away from the hut. Azula kept up the momentum, sending them both flying through trees while using Toph as a shield against the impact. They landed—<em>finally</em>, thought Toph—in the mud, after Azula had run out of trees to send Toph flying into.</p><p>Toph found her center again mid-flight and tucked her legs in. Then she kicked, <em>hard, </em>into Azula’s stomach. She put enough force into it to find the momentum she needed and came out of that awful tumble on top, balling her fists around the collar of Azula’s tunic. The metal bands around Toph’s arms shot loose and free. They snapped themselves cleanly around Azula’s wrists, hands above her head.</p><p>At this sudden turn of events, Azula laughed, the sound of it ringing harsh into the dead air.</p><p>“You still crazy, huh?” Toph muttered, jerking Azula up by the collar. The material of her tunic was thin enough that Azula was certain it might rip, though it was clear the police chief cared nothing for decorum right now. “Talk!”</p><p>Talk she did. “How long has it been since you’ve fought like this? It's been a while. I can <em>tell—</em>”</p><p>“How long has it been since you got <em>pounded down to dust</em>, Azula?”</p><p>“Oh, my. That’s no way to talk to <em>royalty</em>, Beifong! Had I known you missed me so much—”</p><p>Toph slammed her into the ground, leaving Azula painfully winded. The firebender wheezed a little but didn’t resist or fight back. Instead, Azula laid her head back on the ground. She stared openly into her adversary’s face. Not much different from the last time she’d seen her. There was still that roguish look about her, that same sharpness to her blind eyes. Even <em>if </em>the years had clearly weathered that face.</p><p>She supposed it was a far better sight than her brother or the Avatar, and simply laid still. Azula knew better than to court death today.</p><p>“My daughter,” Toph spoke slow, through gritted teeth. “Or I’ll end you right here, right now. You've got a long enough list of war crimes for me to get away with murder, anyways.”</p><p>“Don’t be ridiculous. If you want to see your daughter again, you’ll have to let me live.”</p><p>Toph dug her fingers into Azula’s tunic again, practically breathing smoke. Had she not been an earthbender, Azula supposed the woman might make a rather formidable firebender.</p><p>“And why is that? You got her tied up somewhere, is that it?”</p><p>“Please.” Azula looked to her left, then to her right. They were no longer where they landed. “This forest has hidden her from us both now. You’ll need me if you want to see her again.”</p><p>“You’d better start talkin’ sense and <em>quick</em>, Princess.”</p><p>Azula wriggled a little underneath Toph’s weight. A brief flash of surprise flickered across the police chief’s features. The firebender smirked. “Get off me and I will, or are we just going to lay about like this all day while the magical forest eats us alive?”</p><p>“Magical forest? The hell are you talkin’ about?” Yet despite the disbelief in Toph’s voice, she was suddenly more than willing to get up off Azula. Almost a little too roughly for her liking, Toph then seized Azula by the scruff of her collar and pulled her to her feet. “This is not the day to be shitting me, I’m warnin’ ya.”</p><p>“Oh, I’ve missed you too. Now,” Azula took a few light steps away from Toph’s side, beginning to walk a slow circle around the earthbender. Already, the chill had settled back into the air. She shivered involuntarily.</p><p>“Let me tell you a little something about this forest, and where Suyin’s gone.”</p><p>*</p><p>“This forest is full of spirits?!” Suyin screamed, bursting out of the trees.</p><p>Behind her, a large, glowing bear was tunnelling through the forest, jaws wide open in an almighty roar that reverberated through the air. It was <em>terrible</em>, she thought, and far worse than Azula had ever hinted at. Had she known about this? It made sense if she had—no one would willingly risk their necks, wandering into some stupid halfway place between the spirit and mortal worlds.</p><p>
  <em>Oh, I’m gonna kill her when I get back!</em>
</p><p>Suyin brought up walls of earth behind her as she ran, but the ghost bear simply passed right through them. She was going to die, all because she agreed to find a stupid lake with those stupid herbs for that stupid swamp witch princess—</p><p>“OH MY GOD!”</p><p>Suyin had gone over the edge of a cliff—but there was a <em>path </em>just two seconds ago!—and dropped sharply into a fall. Below, a shadowy unknown waited, as impenetrable as the darkest night. The earth had suddenly opened up, just like that, and Suyin plummeted into the depths with one last scream.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Since we're *already* on the path of no return with this canon divergence thing, I'm going to go ahead and say that Zuko, too, knows how to bend lightning (instead of just redirecting it), and that maybe he's learnt it over the years or something. *waves hand* So it shall be.</p>
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